Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Image Detective is a fun site that teachers can use as a writing prompt for students. This site displays historical images and is excellent for those brainstorming questions such as: who, what, why, when, etc.

I highly recommend this site to get the creative juices flowing for exploring pictures and building writing comprehension skills. Click here for more info.

VidMe is a site I learned about from Richard Byrne's excellent blog, that is ideal for sharing videos w/ anyone. The reason for this is VidMe lets users share any video privately by controlling who sees what, and who can download what. This would be ideal for education especially when having to worry about CIPA compliance.

Stroome is a site I just learned about from Larry Ferlazzo's wonderful blog. Stroome is an online video editor simiar to iMovie or Jaycut. This is an excellent site that lets a user upload and edit, video, images, or audio. As w/ most video editors clips can be edited and transitions/effects can be added.

Aviary just released an educational instance for their online tools. This is great when wanting to create a safe/private area for students to work in. Aviary has an excellent suite of tools for allowing students to create/edit, music (Roc), audio (Myna) , images, etc. It kind of reminds me of an online version of Apple's iLife suite.

Click here to request a beta invite for this great online application!!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

MeeGenuis is a great site for younger students that will either read a book to student while highlighting the text or can be personalized to change the story up (similar in the way mad libs work). There is quite a collection of children books on here for teachers to like.

I highly recommend checking out MeeGenuis especially those in the K-2 age group.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

"Digital art is an umbrella term for a range of artistic works and practices that utilize digital technology. Since the 1970s various names have been used to describe what is now called digital art including computer art and multimedia art but digital art is itself placed under the larger umbrella term new media art. (Wikipedia)"

I've been into Digital Art for a couple of years now co-founding a Digital Art club back in my old district. That being said I've always loved the way how technology can be integrated into art and have decided to list my top 10 favorite sites for just that.

Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Art

Art Pad - A great painting site that records a picture while it's created to create a time lapse effect.

Slimber - An excellent site for drawing & painting w/ some beautiful examples.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Time Maps is a wonderful site that I just found out about from Richard Byrne's excellent blog, Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a great site for history teachers/students and is a cross between a time line, enyclopedia, atlas, and tag cloud.

The National Gallery of Victoria has a great application on their site for digital storytelling. Granted, it applies for creating a story from Old Japan, but none the less this is one of the better digital storytelling sites around.

As w/ most sites like this a user gets to choose a background, character, props, actions, etc and then develop a story to their liking. As I only developed 1 scene I'm not sure if the finished product lets you get an embed code to put on a site but I'm sure it generates a URL in the very least.

I'd like to thank the great blog by the Book Chook for alerting me to this wonderful site.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Vodburner is an excellent site that I just found out about for the equally excellent, Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is an application which allows Windows (sorry Mac) users to record & edit Skype calls. As w/ most video editors segments can be altered and transitions can be added.

Vodburner is a Skype users dream which can downloaded by clicking here!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Online Degrees a new site has just published their top 100 educational blogs. There are some great names on this list and I was just lucky to be a part of this. Soon, I will be publishing my Top 50 list but until then you can read through this and see some familiar names.

Thanks to my PLN, readers, and supporters who helped make Technology Tidbits come in at #8.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Share My Map is a fun new (beta) site that I learned about from Larry Ferlazzo's wonderful blog. This is a place where a user creates a "community" of a map and then has others collaborate on it. It's a cross between Google Maps and Wikipedia in the way that it works.

The other day YouTube released their video editor which has been getting a lot of press as of late. I tested it out and feel that it is just another reason why YouTube is perhaps the best place for all needs video "housing & editing".

Basically, it lets a user upload a video, edit it w/ captions or a soundtrack, and even create a mash-up w/ other videos.

Monday, June 14, 2010

It just occurred to me that I have no easy way to look for the top 10 lists I have other then searching by keywords. That being said, I decided to create a place where everyone can go to browse through this list.

Wacchen is a site I just learned about from the excellenet blog, Zarco English. This is a place for bookmarking video. However, it's not only for links but a user has the ability to embed a video directly into their Wacchen web page. This is similar to how Fliggo used to work w/out the web 2.0 interface.

I Spot a Story is an interesting site for bookmarking/sharing interesting stories from around the web. However, it is much more then just social bookmarking it is a place where people can collaborate on the same stories. This is done via uploading a story or contributing to ones that are already there to gather different view points.

Roc is a free online music creator by Aviary, one of the nicest suites of online tools. Roc has a bit of learning curve but once it is learned it is a very detailed site for creating some excellent music.

If I would've known of this site a few days ago I would've included it on my top 10 list and probably listed it at #4.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Pixorial is an excellent site for creating video and then sharing w/ others. If there is one thing I'd say that Pixorial specializes in that would be electronic cards (e-cards). Other nice features is the ability to share w/ a number of sites such a: YouTube, FB, Twitter, etc. and the ability to generate an embed code.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Ever since I started exploring creating music on the computer w/ Garageband I've come to love how easy it is to implement it into education. Students can use it to create soundtracks to movies, mix their favorite songs, and even record their own voice. Below is my list of top 10 sites for creating/mixing digital music.

Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Music

Myna - Far and away my favorite online music editor. This is very similar to Garageband and a nice alternative for those who do not have the Apple application.

Soundation - Very easy to use w/ a drag/drop interface for creating some excellent sounding music.

Jam Studio - A fun site that lets users select a "key" to play in and then a theme to match it to.

Loop Labs - A little bit of a higher learning curve then most online sites but w/ a nice time line editor.

Your Spins - A great site for mixing prerecorded music and then sharing w/ others.

Indaba - Is a unique site where people can create collaborative music pieces to make one final product.

Creating Music - A fantastic website to show kids how to create digital music. Very user friendly!!

Contrapunctus Variations - A wonderful site for creating orchestral type music by selecting an instrument and clicking on a time line.

Veezzle is a new free search engine to find free stock photos. This is a great site for finding pictures and the way images get sorted is by having people rate them. The higher the rating the better chance at see that photo.

Slimber is a new site I found out about for online drawing/painting that I found out about from Larry Ferlazzo. This is a site that is very similar to Sketchpad in that it has the same type of user interface and draw tools.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Audioboo is a neat site that allows users to record audio via a web interface and then share it w/ others. There are a ton sites that do things very similar such as AudioPal but Audioboo has one of the nicest users interface.Give Audioboo a try by clicking here.

Monday, June 7, 2010

It appears that I'm at a crossroads in my professional life. Today I just received the official word that I'm being let go as of the end of the week. The reason for this is out of my control but due to a technology restructure and economical downturn.

This news did not come as a surprise to me but it still unsettling none the less. While I haven't talked about it much to the "online" world some of my closest members of my PLN are aware of this and have truly been wonderful, and I thank them for that.

I feel like that w/ my experience, resume, and portfolio that I should be able to find another job if there is one, and that's a big IF. Now is not the time anyone wants to be unemployed and I know there are millions of people out there in the same boat as I am.

Anyway, I'm hoping maybe a reader or somebody who comes across this post might have a projective lead for me. If anybody out there does know of any technology Integration/Specialist job, I'd be forever grateful.

Twiducate is a new site that I just found out about from Larry Ferlazzo. This is an excellent to provide social networking skills in a safe school environment. It is very similar to Moodle in that respect.

What makes Twiducate so great is that everything is being monitored in a controlled environment that is password protected. Teachers can use it to post assignment, share ideas, and even collaborate w/ parents.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

History Pin is a cool new site which allows users to "pin" locations in Google St. View. Once a location is pinned a user can add their own story. This is a very nice visual site to use which incorporates a fun time line aspect as well.

Embed Article is a great site for quoting "works" of others. No longer is it necessary to quote anybody. A person can just copy the text they want past it into EA and then get a code that will put the text into their site w/ a link back to the original article. Very handy!!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

"A timeline is a kind of graphic design showing a long bar labeled with dates alongside itself and (usually) events labeled on points where they would have happened. It is used to show events along a period of time, and are often used in education to help students and researchers with understanding events and trends for a particular subject." (Wikipedia)

Top 10 Sites for Creating Timelines

Capzles - Quite simply one of the nicest timeline creation sites around, w/ a beautiful user interface as well as the ability to embed into a site.

Time Rime - An excellent site w/ educational instance (great for teachers) that allows users to create multimedia timelines.

Soundation Studio is an excellent site for editing music in the same way that you would do it w/ Garageband or Myna. What makes SS so great is how easy it is to use. All a user has to do is either upload their audio and then drag/drop into the desired play clip or they can select from stock audio files. Once a song is complete a user can get a URL to share w/ others or an embed code to put the song on their site.

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David Kapuler

I have been working w/ technology and education for over 14 years in a school setting. I'm looking for work in a K-12 environment as a Technology Integration/Support Specialist in WI/IL. Contact email - dkapuler@gmail.com
I'm currently looking to get my Mac OS/Repair Certification, as well as a Masters in Technology Integration.
Also, I have a solid background in web design, w/ network/server support.
On a personal note, I';m a proud father of 3 boys and 1 girl, and have been married for 10 years.